After a few months I got a phone call from E.ON. where they basically offered me a better than the default deal, which I accepted, and then today the contract arrived. Now… not a lot of people read these, right? I tend to give them a skim at least, to see if something insane appears and sometimes I hit the jackpot.

“The personal details of you that we have obtained are necessary to accomplish our part of this agreement and to accomodate your needs as a customer. Your name and address may also be used for marketing by E.ON. as well as by companies with which E.ON. is cooperating. Your personal information may also be used in educational purposes.” (bold emphasis mine)

So uh… not thinking there was much hope, I still decided to just email them,

“Hi,

According to the contract you sent to my home, “(the above quote)”

I do NOT want you to use my personal information for marketing, and I most definitely don’t want you to give it out to other companies.

Sincerely,

-Kalle Alm (my personal id number).”

Within an hour I got a response which to my surprise went:

“Hi,

Thanks for your email.

We have registered that you do not want us to use your personal information for marketing purposes.

Please contact us again [blabla].”

I didn’t think it’d be that easy, but there you have it. Summary: read through your contracts! You might end up with a company like E.ON. who thinks people are too lazy to read through this “boring” stuff!

Last year when I went to the U.S., I had the unexpected fortune of encountering a customs officer who actually treated me like a living object. I even told her so.

“This is my first time being treated like a person, you know. Going through these customs control thingies.”, says I.
“Oh… I’m sorry?”, says she, with a guilty grin.

Most of my trips to the states, I’ve over-thought this situation quite a bit. I’ve reasoned erroneously that these guys probably have a lot of tired and annoyed people going through, so I should at least make an effort and smile. That smile has put me inside rooms with mexicans and other dirty peoples (note the sarcasm, by the way) for 3-4 hours at a time. That smile, to me a way to say, “I know you’re just doing your job, but I don’t hate on you for it,” was to them a sign of suspicion.

So a few years ago I had enough. I knew I was going to be treated like excrement glaced with vomit, so I gave them exact, precise honesty. Frowning, grunting out replies, staring at them fully expecting the treatment I was surely going to be having, and I had it every time but that one time last year. And amusingly, I’ve not been questioned extensively or brought to any rooms with mexicans since.

Then came ESTA. Going to a country which is a part of the Schenger agreement (I think that’s the one) lets you, without a visa, enter the country for up to 90 days. Except someone in the states decided this was awfully unsafe, so they put up ESTA, a web site with seemingly no meaning whatsoever* , where you are asked questions you will be asked again, later.

(* except to deny you entry BEFORE you fly all the way over there, which I guess is a good thing — I’ve heard of people being sent all the way back home)

Regardless, what are these questions then, you might ask? Anyone who’s gone to the states has no doubt (whilst giggling quietly to themselves) answered these absolutely ridiculous questions.

I mean… good thing I said No to all of those, right! Phew. Just look at (B), for example. If I was — and to any U.S. officials swinging by to see why the ESTA content are being published on my blog, I might assert that I am not — planning on “engaging in criminal or immoral activities”, I’m sure I’d be tempted for at least a second to answer Yes, honest as I am.

The big dump of excrement in my eye though is that this ridiculous form underwent a change as of March this year.

It now charges you $14 per application.

So not only am I forced to waste my time on the above bullshit, but I’m charged to do so.

You are using a “Team Provisioning Profile” and it expired. You went to renew and download it, and noted “Managed by Xcode” and the “Renew” button was grayed out.

The solution: delete the profile from Organizer in Xcode, then at the top click “Refresh” (right by “Automatic Device Provisioning”). Organizer will fetch a new provisioning profile with a new expiration date.

Intuitive indeed.

Bored as I was, I typed in “sex” in the search and got a bunch of random looking results. I downloaded one, looked at it, noted (with no surprise) that it was retarded and then the machine beeped and I thought nothing more of it.

Fastforward a bit. Here you see me plugging my iPhone into my computer. It syncs.

Fastforward some more. Here you see me finding that app later. I delete it from the phone, thinking “phew, good thing I didn’t leave that around in case someone found it. How embarrasing.”

Fastforward again. Here I’m plugging the iPad into the computer. It syncs.

Fastforward a final time. Here’s my 12 year old niece playing, as she always does whenever she’s visiting, with my iPad.

And then later that day, I look at the first app page and what do I see? Yeah. iTunes synced that app in from my iPhone and out to my iPad. It’s a setting that I have control over, but geez, where are the privacy features on these bloody things? Where can I “hide” stuff I don’t want my 12 year old niece to stumble on?

Sigh. And now you guys know I downloaded a smut app. But the fact my 12 year old niece might have seen it is by far worse. Much, much worse. Ugh.

I’m so happy I live in this country, where it’s possible to go to uni at the age of 30. In Japan, people start pressuring you about it at the age of, oh, 5. Months.

I digress. At uni, I’m now taking two courses — engineering methodology and linear algebra. The former is a pain, the latter is fun. The former mainly comprises of the following:

Be put into a group with 7 other people, plan and execute a fairly big project (1-2 months of 16 hours/week worth of “work”), and then present the results. And write a bunch of reports about how it all went.

Said project turned out to be assembling and programming a LEGO Mindstorms NXT robot. I was “fairly” lucky with my team mates, except that the majority want to “take the short cut” and sort of just pretend not to exist so they don’t have to do anything.

I don’t blame them, really. We were a pretty disorganized bunch from the get go, and it was really hard to get everyone things to do. There were only so many sub-components of the robot you could make before you ran out, and building the robot required at most two people — more, and there’re too many hands fidgeting.

I also don’t blame them for starting to talk shit about me behind my back. It happened after we had been sitting in a “seminar” which was obligatory, talking about a chapter in the engineering methodology book we had been required to read. First though, to get some perspective, this is the deal:

I’m working 50% plus attending school. That means I have 4 less hours each (week)day to studying or relaxing. This is considered normal in most countries, but in Sweden, being a uni student is considered the equivalent of working approximately 125%. In effect, I’m now occupied 175% with work and/or school. That’s 70 hour weeks.

So there we are in the seminar, and people haven’t done what they were supposed to. The assignment clearly said “read the book and then pick out stuff from parts 2-4 and bring to the seminar”, and people interpreted “parts 2-4″, conveniently, as “chapters 2-4″ (which were all in part 1). So we take 15 mins where people read up “real quick” on the other parts, and then discuss… and…

… it’s just retarded. Absolute, raw, unfiltered retardation. People were saying things like,

A. “Okay guys, so! The next item on the list goes: ensuring group unity. Anyone have anything to say?”
B. “Oh yeah, we totally need to have group unity. It’s like, super important. Without group unity we won’t be as effective and such.”
A. “That’s awesome, B. How do we ensure group unity?”
B. “You know, we have to stick together and shit. Back each other up.”
A. “Perfect.” (writes this whole thing down on lap top)

And it spirals downward from there. I’m sitting there watching these people with this empty, glazed over expression in my eyes, and at some point I just involuntarily start grunting agreement in an extremely sarcastic voice. I’m serious when I say I felt like someone was controlling me, because even though I knew how bad it was, I couldn’t stop myself.

Meanwhile someone pulls out their math book, walks over to me, and starts asking me questions about some problem. In the middle of the seminar. I look at the book for a brief moment, then turn back to the room and pretend nothing’s happened. So totally not me.

Then eventually I just stand up and say, “Well since you guys are doing math, I’m gonna head home and work.” and leave.

And that’s where it sort of started. People laughing for no reason when I say or do something. It bothered me initially, but then I stopped caring. I also stopped caring about courtesy in the group, coming at appointed times and leaving when we’re done, doing everything I can for the project, but nothing for the people in it. They’d stop talking when I came into the room, or even say things like “The group is already falling apart, *laugh laugh chuckle chuckle*” when I did. I always felt like confronting them when that happened, but instead I just grinned back and said something like “Yeah, me and (random name of person who’s also not there at the moment) have decided to dump you guys from the project.” And I realized it was because I actually don’t mind that they use me as “the bad guy” to talk about whenever I’m not around.

I’m comfortably fine being an asshole, and I know I’m being one. And I know it’s partly my fault. It feels good. It’s so unlike me, it’s as if it’s not me at all.

It’s partly my fault. When I started my classes I was determined at a completely separate level from the others in my group — all of them. I was dead set on doing everything in my power to get everything done as fast and efficiently as possible. I just came into it with this zero tolerance for “unnecessity” that made me lash out or do things I normally never would. The others ranged from “want to get grade” to “want to do something good with the time”, which I’d say is the healthy, normal state (or the latter, at least).

And I just don’t take bullshit the way I used to. At some point in the last couple of years, my patience has just… diminished.

Not great, perhaps. But there are other, good things too in this.

Throughout all of this, I realized something dark and dirty about myself. Throughout my life, I’ve loathed being hated. The mere thought of someone out there hating me, or even slightly disliking me, has always haunted me and affected my actions. Now, seeing these people around me being petty as they are (and they are; even if it is partly my fault), I’m struck by the realization that I absolutely couldn’t care less if they hate, or dislike, me, and if I don’t care about people I’ve been around 16 hours a week for the last two months, why on earth should I care what a stranger on the street thinks about me?

I should rather care about what those I care about think, or those I respect think, or not care about what anyone thinks and just do what I think is right. Not thinking about what other people think is a mindblowing concept, to me.

Late bloomer, what can I say.

800 MBs of RAM. And you know what? I haven’t even used Flash since I started Chrome.

So in the midst of Flash versus Apple (well, we’ve sort of blown past it, but anyway), let me just point something out here…

You blow.

Oh, right, I renamed that “MultilineTableViewController” to “multilineTableViewController” (lowercase M) because everything else has lower-case-initial-letter.

Kalle-Alms-MacBook-Pro:trunk me$ svn rm Classes/MultilineTableViewController.h
D         Classes/MultilineTableViewController.h
Kalle-Alms-MacBook-Pro:trunk me$ svn rm Classes/MultilineTableViewController.m
D         Classes/MultilineTableViewController.m

Great! Let’s add the new lower-case one to SVN now while at it…

Kalle-Alms-MacBook-Pro:trunk me$ svn add Classes/mult*tab**tab**tab**beep**beep*

Hm?

Kalle-Alms-MacBook-Pro:trunk me$ svn add Classes/*tab**tab*
.DS_Store                     gridreaderViewController.h    mgImageSourceRequest.m        mgScrollView.m                muddyGrid.m
.svn/                         gridreaderViewController.m    mgImageView.h                 mgWindow.h                    tile.h
UIImage+Scaling.h             gridreaderViewController.xib  mgImageView.m                 mgWindow.m                    tile.m
UIImage+Scaling.m             mg2DTileSet.h                 mgMinimap.h                   mgXMLParser.h                 worldViewController.h
fileIO.h                      mg2DTileSet.m                 mgMinimap.m                   mgXMLParser.m                 worldViewController.m
fileIO.m                      mgImageSource.h               mgMinimapButton.h             mgXMLWorld.h
gridreaderAppDelegate.h       mgImageSource.m               mgMinimapButton.m             mgXMLWorld.m
gridreaderAppDelegate.m       mgImageSourceRequest.h        mgScrollView.h                muddyGrid.h

Wait.

Where’s my class…?

Turns out SVN fucktardedly presumed “oh im shure he ment delt da fl thats lcase here insted lolstfucoksknmfur”. Luckily I had the files in memory.

The wonderful adventure continues.

svn: Failed to add file 'foo/Doc-credits.png': an unversioned file of the same name already exists
Kalle-Alms-MacBook-Pro:iphone me$ rm foo/Doc-Credits.png
Kalle-Alms-MacBook-Pro:iphone me$ svn up
Restored 'foo/Doc-Credits.png'
svn: Failed to add file 'foo/Doc-credits.png': an unversioned file of the same name already exists
Kalle-Alms-MacBook-Pro:iphone me$ masturbate furiously
-bash: masturbate: command not found

This time, the file Doc-Credits.png exists and the file Doc-credits.png needs to be added.

For the record, Mac OS X is at fault here — Apple decided to “be compatible” with Windows and not allow filenames of the same size with different capitalization, which *NIX does allow.

That doesn’t make SVN any less retarded though. After all, it’s running on the OS, so it should know the OS.

But… when I try to change it so that Swedish is the default input methods …. I can’t. Uh. Right.

… huh? Why can’t I drag and arrange my input methods in order of preference?

The deal is, whenever I open a new … window. Or tab, in Safari… I get it in Japanese.

Imagine this scenario: I open up a new tab in my browser! I decide to boldly go where none other has boldly gone before, and I type in “www.google.com” BUT!

BUT!!!! I do not GET “www.google.com” in the browser.

No sir. I don’t. I get “っっw。ごおgぇ。cおm”

in the browser.

And this is not what I wanted! Nope. No sir. Not anywhere or any way.

Can you feel my frustration shining? For now, I’ve turned Japanese off, so any time I talk to my girlfriend or whoever I will do so in “Konnichiwa watashi no chinchin wo sutte kudasai” romaji. Anyone got any nice clues on this one? It’s completely unbelievable that they’d not realize that people, sometimes, would prefer not to have their languages thrown at them in alphabetic order. (Yes, “Japanese” comes before “Swedish”.) Or is it that every tester was an American, thus “English” comes before “Japanese” and it’s not a “problem”?

EDIT: I finally figured this out. The reason it was acting up was because of 3 separate factors which, combined, do not work:

1. Japanese input.
2. Swedish as alternative input
3. English as operating system language.

The fix is to change the OS language to Swedish. I personally hate having the OS in Swedish, but I’m apparently given no choice. Better that than no Japanese though, I suppose.

Which at the top of it had in big colored text the words: HURRY, RENEW YOUR SUBSCRIPTION BY APRIL 15 2010.

Yes. Capital letters. And then, at the bottom of this OMG DO IT NOW OR PERISH LIKE THE NEANDERTHALS!!1111111111oneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneoneone email… there is the following: To continue to receive the NVIDIA UK Corporate Newsletter, you don’t need to take any action! On April 15 2010, your subscription will automatically be transferred to our UK database.

Which means “right, we just screamed at the top of our lungs to tell you that you actually don’t have to do anything“.

Asshats.

(Oh and yes, I comprehend that they have now divided their newsletter up by country, and that this is what they’re trying to say. They’re just saying it like asshats.)

Anyway, the iPhone does not love linux. I knew this though. And this isn’t so much me complaining that the iPhone doesn’t love linux, as it is me marvelling at the grotesqueness of it all.

Look at what I am forced to do, in order to install “apps” from the Apple store onto my iPhone — and no, this is not about jailbreaking the phone, although you might think it is considering all the steps:

1. I have to get Windows or Mac OS. Yep. I read about iTunes in Wine (Windows emulation in linux) and heard it was “garbage”. I do this. I put Windows back on my lap top. For my iPhone. Because it is my master.

2. I have to install iTunes. I do this. Whilst asking myself “why must I…?” I do this. Obediently.

3. I have to confirm my Apple Account, FROM INTERNET EXPLORER. Hang on a minute here.
- I get an email to my gmail address,
- with a confirmation link,
- and clicking it in Firefox
- gives me the Apple “download iTunes for free!!!11111oneneone” page …
- and then when I open iTunes
- I get the “you have not validated your account — please check your email and follow the confirmation link” …
- so finally after many laps of chasing my own ass,
- I try the confirmation link in IE
- and voilá. Beau-fucking-tit-ful. Welcome to Apple Computing. We come in peace from the 1990′s. We mean you no harm.

Thus, finally, I can get on with installing apps on my iPhone. Great hardware, by the way, pity about its maker.

*) Only a select few understand that one and it has nothing to do with Harry Potter.